But my favorite press clipping is when fishwrap, the magazine I published out of New York for six years was named the “Zine of the Month” in Sassy magazine, back in November of 1994. I had been doing the magazine for about a half a year by then. The magazine, or “zine” as it was known back then, was something I liked to call “a publication that bit the hands that wouldn’t feed me” because I made fun of all of the magazines that I moved to New York to write for.

Not everyone got the joke, but Sassy magazine did. Christina Kelly, who I believe was the senior editor back then, called me and told me that they thought it was hilarious and that they were naming fishwrap the zine of the month in an upcoming issue. She asked me how their readers could get a copy or subscribe and I told her that if they sent me a dollar I’d send them an issue and if they liked it then they could subscribe. I really didn’t expect too many teenage girls to be interested in the magazine.

I was wrong about that!

After the issue came out, I got hundreds of letters and dollars from teenage girls all over the country wanting a copy of fishwrap. This was the pre-internet days and the zine revolution was just starting and fishwrap became a popular title and a lot of these girls ended up subscribing to the magazine. To this day I wonder how many of their minds I warped!

My favorite letter came from a girl who told me that she loved fishwrap and the sarcastic and snide humor contained within. After gushing on for a few paragraphs, she closed the letter with the following question: “So what grade are you in?”

Ha ha ha! At the time I was 36-years-old and was probably older than her parents. I didn’t write her back and I wonder what she’s doing now, 24 years later?

Anyway, I’ve always been grateful to have been featured in Sassy magazine and that clipping always brings a smile to my face.

Photo of the Day

Speaking of fishwrap, here’s a copy on my end table in the MBIP World Headquarters. This was our “Just Say Dope” issue and the cover story was an interview with Steven Hager, the editor of High Times magazine and John Holmstrom who was the publisher. John’s also an artist, a founding editor of Punk magazine and he did illustrations for a couple of The Ramones album covers. Here’s his website/blog.